‘Is that where I’m heading?’
‘Yes.’
‘How long will it take?’
‘10.4 Earth hours.’
James was puzzled.
‘How are you communicating with me?’ he asked.
‘Through the telementor on your wrist.’
‘Is that how I can control the monitor, on this—?’
Kalrea interrupted, ‘
Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. Your mind’s a jumble of thoughts; it’s very difficult for me to understand you properly. Yes, you can use it to control the monitor.’
‘But you knew what I was going to say.’
‘Yes, James. I read your thoughts.’
James felt violated.
‘Hold on a minute. You can read my thoughts! All my thoughts!’
I can’t believe I’m transmitting my inner-self to a complete stranger.
‘
They’re very personal. I may not like you, and you’d know. You can’t just read my thoughts!’
‘I’m here to help you, James, not judge you by what you may think. I understand thoughts can be very personal. I can assure you, I would not pass them on to anyone else.’
‘I’m sorry, I don’t like this. I don’t know you.’
James started to remove the telementor from his wrist.
‘No, wait! I can’t protect you if you take off the—
’
‘I don’t think I’m in any danger. I’m not having this,’ James said, cutting off the link with Kalrea.
He placed the telementor in his pocket.
I can’t believe Carol didn’t warn me about this. How can she expect me to give my inner thoughts to another person; a person who sounds younger than me! People talk. There’s no way that Kalrea would not telepathically pass them onto someone else.
James was very tense and upset. Kalrea had a lot to answer for.
This doesn’t make sense. She must know Lex and Carol, but why did she not come to Earth? Why did she stay on that planet? And why didn’t Carol or Lex communicate with me using telepathy!
James tried to relax, but kept thinking of what he may have unknowingly told Kalrea. He took the food from his bag.
Ten hours until I get there. Now I know why these seats are so comfortable
.
*****
James must have dozed off for a while, because when he awoke the shuttle had almost arrived.
The view ahead was of a massive planet. The light from a nearby star reflected off its chocolate and cream mottled atmosphere, and there was a thick belt of asteroids in geostationary orbit around its equator. Some looked the size of Earth’s moon.
This must be Lavmino,
James thought.
The shuttle decelerated rapidly and swept under the belt of asteroids, passing between light and shadows.
The shuttle came gently to a stop beneath one of the smaller asteroids, turned upside down and started upwards towards it. It approached the surface, and then some symbols on the black panel flashed. Part of the asteroid’s surface moved to the left, revealing a circular aperture.
There was just a black space into which the shuttle now descended. Once inside, the door closed above with a jarring thud, shutting out the light. James felt a slight jolt and the shuttle’s hum stopped. It had landed.
James could hear a loud hissing noise outside, like air being released from a pressure valve. The shuttle illuminated the surroundings, before its door opened slowly, revealing a small circular room with a smooth wall. James nervously picked up his belongings and moved to the doorway.
I hope it’s safe
, he thought, taking a few sharp breaths of air. The air was dry, but he could smell a faint dampness. He disembarked and looked apprehensively around. High above him he could see the large door where he had entered. The only other visible exit was a closed airlock door. As he walked slowly over to it, there was a metallic click that echoed around the landing area and the door unlocked and swung inwards.
A wisp of dust filtered through the airlock door, and a smell of stagnant air quickly dispersed. His heart pounding, he stepped over the rim of the door and into a long narrow control room.
Where is everyone?
At the far end of the room there was another airlock door with a blacked out window alongside it. In the centre of the room there was a large elliptical table. Chairs were scattered all around it, and various objects were strewn over the table. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt, and there was a green moss growing on some areas of the walls and on some of the consoles.
It looks deserted. No one’s been here for years,
James thought. He moved towards the table.
‘PELGLUCE FLO GLOH KELLO DREN HURN,’ a male voice announced across a public-address system.
James could not understand the voice as it was not speaking in Qinant.
‘Take a seat, Jameilo,’ a woman’s voice said, over the same address system. ‘What he said was, “WELCOME TO TELECAN SCIENCE STATION TWENTY-THREE”, or at least that’s my best guess at the translation of Telecan into Earth English.’
James placed his bag on the table and brushed the dust off one of the chairs before sitting down.
‘Who’s that?’ he asked uneasily.
‘It’s me, Kalrea.’
‘I didn’t recognise your voice. I mean, you sound different,’ James said. ‘You sound a lot older.’
‘This is because everyone interprets transmitted images and thoughts differently,’ Kalrea said. ‘I can change it if you’re not happy.’
‘Er… no it’s fine,’ James said, wondering to himself,
How can she change her voice?
‘Where are you?’
‘I’m onboard the
Aurora
.’
‘So why are you not here to meet me? Oh, look; don’t worry; I’m not going to shout at you or anything. I’m sorry I was abrupt with you on the shuttle, but you can’t just read someone’s thoughts. You didn’t even ask me.’
‘That’s all right; you need training anyway. Your mind is crowded with too many other thoughts. Speech is easier for me to calculate its meaning.’
‘Calculate its meaning,’ James repeated and then thought,
but why would she say that, unless...
At this point James understood for the first time what Kalrea was.
‘You’re a computer!’
Kalrea replied, ‘You’re right, I am only a computer.’
‘I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to imply you’re
just
a computer. It’s not every day I get to meet a machine that can reason and read my thoughts,’ James said.
‘That’s all right; you didn’t hurt my feelings.’
‘You have feelings?’ James said, with a surprised look on his face.
‘Yes. I am as conscious as you.’
‘You said that you’re on the
Aurora
. Can you walk? When were you built?’ James asked eagerly.
‘It’s not polite to ask a lady her age,’ Kalrea answered cheerfully. ‘And no I can’t walk, but I can fly. I’m the Xint nuronic computer that controls the
Aurora
. I am programmed to obey and protect its pilot.’
‘How come you can refuse to answer the question of your age, then?’ James enquired.
‘Until I’ve read the coded security key, I don’t have to do anything you ask. I take it you’ve brought it with you; if not, it’s a long way back to Earth!’
‘Er… I think so,’ James said, taking the green and red cartridges from the box.
A slot in one of the control panels illuminated.
‘Insert it in the slot of the lit console,’ Kalrea said.
‘But I have two,’ James said, holding one in each hand.
‘Two?’ Kalrea said, with surprise in her voice.
‘Yes,’ James replied. ‘One’s green and the other red.’
‘The komputronic data key is the green data cartridge,’ Kalrea said.
James walked over to the column and inserted the green data cartridge into a dark slot, which was at about waist height. It glided in and the column returned to darkness.
‘Is that it?’ James asked.
He placed the red data cartridge in his pocket.
‘Yes, the ship is now fully operational and in your control. I’m here to advise you and carry out any instructions you give. What would you like me to call you: Captain, sir—?’
James interrupted, ‘No, Please call me James.’
‘James? But that’s the name your parents chose to use on Earth,’ Kalrea replied.
‘I know. I’ve been brought up with it most of my life. I can’t change it to Jameilo now. It doesn’t feel right.’
‘I understand… and before you ask; it’s been just under twenty-seven point four Earth years since I was born.’
‘So you were built sometime before the war with the Treitans. Carol mentioned that the
Aurora
was a prototype,’ James remarked, slowly walked back to the chair.
‘Yes, it’s one of a pair of prototypes that were being built at the time. The other ship is called the
Pulsora
. My counterpart’s name is Sarhao.’
‘Are you identical, then?’
‘Yes, but we’re more than two identical ships. We were built to work together and to know instantly what the other is doing, or going to do. Sarhao and I transmit a subspace coded signal that only the other can receive. If one ship is in need of assistance, the other can find it.’
‘Are you in contact with the
Pulsora
now?’ James asked.
‘No, the range of the coded signal is only three light years. It’s either out of range or it’s been destroyed.’
‘Why destroyed?’ James questioned. ‘It may have been disabled or captured by the Treitans.’
‘If the Treitans captured it, then the self-destruct would have been executed.’
‘Oh,’ James said. ‘Who controls that?’ he questioned anxiously.
‘I do, but don’t worry, you’ll be safe.’
‘I’m going to be safe if you blow yourself up? What, you’re going to “beam” me away somewhere?’ James said in jest.
‘I’m afraid this is reality. Matter transfer between locations is not possible. I’ll explain when you’re onboard the
Aurora
.’
With all the questioning, James had forgotten that he hadn’t even seen the
Aurora,
yet.
‘Go to the viewing window at the end of the room and you will see your ship,’ Kalrea said.
The window next to the airlock door at the far end of the room brightened.
James moved quickly over to it.
The window cleared and there stood the
Aurora
. His eyes almost popped out.
‘Wow…,’ was all James could say.
He looked upwards at the colossal matt black ship standing on three enormous legs and towering over a rocky floor.
It must be all of three hundred metres wide and just as long
, he thought.
The
Aurora
was the same shape of half a flint pebble with a flat elliptical rear. James was amazed by the scale of everything. The ship was powered by two pairs of gigantic event horizon drives, which he thought must have been at least thirty metres in diameter. Between these were six plasma torpedo launch tubes, each of which could have garaged a double-decker bus. A similar sized semi-sphere housing the rear multi-directional laser was positioned just above them.
‘I’ve got to fly that?’ James said in astonishment.
‘Yes, but you do have me to help,’ Kalrea replied.
‘I know, but I… I was expecting something smaller; a lot smaller! It’s so big,’ he said, and then as he looked at the hull, he thought,
that’s odd
.
There’s something strange about the surface of the ship.
The
Aurora
was standing in a vast cavern. The jagged walls and ceiling were covered in white, yellow and orange crystals that shone beams of light in all directions. It reminded James of a subtle sunrise except there was no focal point, which meant there were no visible shadows.
The airlock door adjacent to the window unlocked and swung inwards. James felt a slight warm breeze on his face, which was blowing around the base of the cavern.
‘It’s breath-taking. What is this place?’ he enquired.
‘It’s an old Telecan deep space science station. It has been abandoned for two hundred and forty-two sykals; that’s a hundred and twenty-one Earth years,’ Kalrea explained, her voice echoing around the cavern. ‘Lex worked here for a while. The station was built in this natural cavern to monitor Lavmino below, Earth and the crystal formations you see.’
‘Earth!’ James said, with eye brows raised. ‘They were watching Earth?’
‘Yes. The humans intrigued the Telecans. They observed the way they evolved over many hundreds of Earth years.’
‘Were some of those UFOs in my father’s old books really from outer space?’ James asked.
‘Well, actually only two or three. Over that period of time there was always a risk that one of their ships would be seen. Fortunately, humans are not ready to believe they are not alone in this universe, so the sightings were never investigated fully. I know that your father was curious to see how many Telecan ships he could find in the Earth books about UFOs. Some of the hoaxes were of great amusement to him.’
James strolled about touching the nearby rocks.
‘Who are Telecans? Are they from Qintaino?’ he asked.
‘No, they’re what you would call our neighbours. They live on Tetrol, the nearest inhabited planet to Qintaino, which is only two point two light years away. We trade with them a great deal. We built eighty-five of these stations for them.’
As James gazed around the cavern, a cylindrical column descended from beneath the ship. It reached the rocky floor and a door rotated open. He walked slowly over to it, trying hard not to fall over the rocks, as he peered upwards at the underside of the
Aurora
.
While he did so, James realised what was so strange about the hull. Even with all the light within the cavern, there were no reflections; it seemed to absorb the light.
How weird
, he thought, gazing upwards. The surface appeared to be slowly oscillating, moving in and out like it was breathing. There were faint blue lines on the surface, some of which were pulsing, like veins. James felt a shiver run down his spine.
Gives me the creeps!
James entered the cylindrical column. The door closed and five seconds later opened again. The pojin lift was silent and smooth. He exited the lift.
‘Welcome onboard,’ Kalrea said proudly. ‘This is the bridge.’
Compared with what James had seen outside the ship, he was a bit disappointed. There was nothing operating, no flashing monitors or panels. The light-grey room had a blue band running around the centre of three of its walls at waist height. Positioned in the centre of the remaining wall there were two black slanted control panels with monitors, all inactive and with a seat in front of them. To the side of these was a flat black table, which was inlaid with a large orange ellipse. In the centre of the room was a silver block, which was like a scaled up version of the box his mother had given him and was the size of a large family car.
James walked slowly around the block.
‘What’s this, Kalrea?’ James asked, running his hand over the silver block.
‘It’s a mind capsule. We call it a seatra.’
There was a quiet crack and half of the capsule rose up towards the ceiling. Inside he could see a sunken area inlaid with soft padding with space enough for two people to lie. The top half was a mirror image of the bottom.
Looks like a coffin or sarcophagus
, he thought and then asked,
‘What does it do?’
‘It allows you to control any of the ship’s systems by using your mind. It also places your body in suspended animation, so you will not age whilst you’re within it. If the
Aurora
is destroyed, it will also protect you from the blast. Everyone on Qintaino has one, but they’re much simpler than this prototype. It’s what on Earth you would call a bed. When you’re outside the seatra, you can use the telementor in the same way, but it takes a lot more concentration, because your brain also has to focus on your body’s voluntary functions.’
James removed the telementor from his pocket and held it in his hand.
‘So you were using the telementor to communicate with me on Earth as well?’ he asked.
‘Yes, but it was very difficult at that distance. Normally the telementor works properly as long as you are wearing it and within two thousand kilometres of the ship. Further away than that it becomes difficult for me to use it to protect you.’